Mindi Abair

Mindi Abair (born May 31, 1969) is an American smooth jazz saxophonist with a strong Top-40 pop music background. She was a backing musician for such acts as Mandy Moore and the Backstreet Boys, and often appeared in their tours. In 2003, Abair decided to give jazz a try, and the move proved to be an enormous success. Often billed as "the second coming of Candy Dulfer," she scored big hits like "Lucy's," "Flirt," and "Save the Last Dance" (which takes its name from the Julia Stiles-Sean Patrick Thomas movie). Mindi also sings occasionally, as evidenced by her vocal cover version of the Eagle-Eye Cherry hit "Save Tonight" on her debut album. In 2006, she released the hit "True Blue". Her sound is comparable with that of Walter Beasley's and Boney James' and other respectable sax players. Critics have been known to give her good praise with notice that she has true "chops" to play real jazz music. Aside from saxophone, Abair also plays the flute and keyboards, and also does vocals.